WilmerHale's EU Competition practice offers advice, representation and advocacy in all types of competition issues. We produce excellent legal work, with insight and expertise, based on many years of experience and a close understanding of the governmental institutions and regulatory agencies with which we deal.
We particularly like to advise and represent clients on issues which are at the intersection of law, business and policy, controversial or complex as that may be.
We have experience in all the classic areas of competition practice: mergers (both Phase 1 and 2 with remedies) before the European Commission; worldwide merger control filings, cartels (in Europe and worldwide), abuse of dominant position and State aid. We also do extensive counseling (including US and EU combined) and compliance work on all types of transactional and contractual issues.
Our premier practices in the US, the EU and China, in competition, regulatory and WTO law set us apart from other firms.
For example, we have recently represented clients in the following high-profile matters:
- Represented Cisco and secured first-phase clearance of its acquisition of Tandberg Systems in the EU and the United States subject to an innovative set of remedies negotiated with the EU and accepted by the US Department of Justice.
- Represented Statoil in obtaining clearance of its $30 billion merger with the petroleum activities of Norsk Hydro from the European Commission and other competition authorities around the globe.
- Represented Statoil in its acquisition of ConocoPhillips JET motor fuel stations in Scandinavia, a case resolved in Phase 2, with a complex remedy after extensive econometric review (creation of a rival station network to be divested as counterweight to perceived gain of high-performance JET network).
- Represented long-standing firm client Lufthansa, in obtaining European Commission approval for its acquisitions of BMI British Midland, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines.
- Represented Lufthansa and Swiss International Airlines in a broad-ranging global investigation into allegations of price-fixing in the international air cargo sector. We obtained conditional amnesty for our client from the European Commission, the US Department of Justice, and in other jurisdictions, which also enabled us to negotiate an early settlement of the more than 80 pending US class actions.
- Representing Red Hat, a leading open-source software company that distributes the Linux operating system, on various Article 102 TFEU and U.S. antitrust issues in connection with Microsoft’s conduct in the marketplace.
Our EU Competition lawyers, part of our European Union Regulatory Group, are uniquely placed to respond to client needs in a broad range of areas and sectors, including:
- Merger Control
- Cooperation, Cartels and Abuse of Dominance
- State Aid
- Trade
- IT, Communications and E-Commerce
- Aviation and Logistics
- Financial Services
- Energy and Climate Change
- Life Sciences and Health Care
- Environment and Waste Management including REACH
- Litigation
WilmerHale's EU Competition practice offers advice, representation and advocacy in all types of competition issues. We produce excellent legal work, with insight and expertise, based on many years of experience and a close understanding of the governmental institutions and regulatory agencies with which we deal.
We particularly like to advise and represent clients on issues which are at the intersection of law, business and policy, controversial or complex as that may be.
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